The grass wasn’t greener

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A landscaper and his nursery-operator wife are looking at criminal penalties for allegedly cheating an elderly man out of thousands of dollars for shoddy work — including charging him more than $3,000 for a single cherry tree.

Edilberto Heredia, 49, and his wife charged the 86-year-old Hillsborough man $120,000 for landscaping work last year that, had it been done right, would have been worth $84,000, San Mateo County prosecutors said. Because it wasn’t done right, however, the man is on the hook for $70,000 in fixes, authorities said.

It all began when the man, whose name wasn’t released, asked Heredia, his neighbor’s landscaper, to do some minor work around the house. Problem was, Heredia continued to push the man for other work and demanded “excessive down payments” for it, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County’s chief deputy district attorney.

Heredia and his wife, Maria Heredia, 48, also charged exorbitant prices for the greenery, including $3,650 for one cherry tree, Wagstaffe said.

The state Department of Consumer Affairs’ Contractors State License Board, which licenses and regulates California’s construction industry, was called in to investigate and concluded the man had been fleeced.

The couple have been charged with misdemeanor violations of the state’s Business and Professions code, including working without a license and charging an excessive down payment. Both are out of custody and are to appear in a South San Francisco courtroom today for a pretrial conference.